Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Netflix, China, Game of Thrones, Crime
Emily Brown
Coming from the creators of Game of Thrones, one of Netflix's newest titles was bound to attract some intrigue - but the real life murder behind it adds a whole other layer.
Five years on from the controversial GoT finale, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss have teamed up along with Alexander Woo to deliver us a new sci-fi series.
Titled 3 Body Problem, the series follows a group of friends as they get wrapped up in a mystery with origins tracing back to China during the Cultural Revolution.
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Following its release on 21 March, 3 Body Problem shot to the top of Netflix's Top 10 TV Shows list and is still clinging on to the top spot, with viewers describing the show as a 'masterpiece'.
But before the series made it to Netflix, one of the people who helped bring it to the streaming service was murdered.
Lin Qi, an entrepreneur and video game tycoon, began working with Netflix and the creators of the show, but in 2020 he was poisoned to death in Shanghai.
Lin was just 39 years old when he was killed by Xu Yao; a 43-year-old former executive who had worked at Lin’s gaming company, Youzu Interactive.
His death came after Lin spent millions of dollars to buy copyrights and licenses connected to The Three-Body Problem book, in the hope of building a franchise of shows and TV shows.
He hired Xu in 2017 as a lawyer to head up a subsidiary of the company called The Three-Body Universe, but according to The New York Times, Xu was soon demoted and subject to a pay cut due to alleged poor performance.
According to the Chinese business magazine Caixin, Xu then set about creating a laboratory where he experimented with poisons he'd bought on the dark web and tested them on animals.
Xu was said to be inspired by Breaking Bad, and after testing the chemicals on animals he is said to have used them to spike beverages which he brought into work.
Xu was arrested on 18 December, 2020, but he refused to say what poison he had used, hindering doctors' efforts to save Lin's life.
Discussing news of the murder, Benioff told The Hollywood Reporter: “It was certainly disconcerting. When you work in this business, you’re expecting all sorts of issues to arise. Somebody poisoning the boss is not generally one of them.”
In March, Xu was sentenced to death for his crimes which a court described as 'extremely despicable'.